 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Láadan | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Suzette Haden Elgin and collaborators |
| Date | 1982 |
| Setting and usage | experiment infeministlinguistics, and featured in Elgin'snovel series beginning withNative Tongue |
| Purpose | Constructed language
|
| Sources | a priori language, with influences fromNavajo andEnglish |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ldn |
ldn | |
| Glottolog | laad1235 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Láadan (Láadan pronunciation:[ˈlɑ˦ɑˈdɑn]ⓘ) is agynocentricconstructed language created bySuzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test theSapir–Whorf hypothesis,[1] specifically to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would shape a culture; a subsidiary hypothesis was that Westernnatural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women. The language was included in herscience fictionNative Tongue series.
Láadan contains a number of words that are used to make unambiguous statements that include how one feels about what one is saying. According to Elgin, this is designed to countermale-centered language's limitations on women, who are forced to respond "I know I said that, but I meant this".[clarification needed]
Elgin was a writer of both fiction and nonfiction book series.[2] Láadan and the ideas underpinning its creation were described in several series:
It was included as alanguage portrayeddiegetically within thespeculative fiction novel trilogyNative Tongue (1984),The Judas Rose (1987), andEarthsong (1993). The role of the language in the plot of the overall story is as a transformative project, whose development changes the social roles of an extended family of linguist characters.
After the publication of the second novel,A First Dictionary & Grammar of Láadan (1988) was published in the hopes that a community of speakers could form, and the validity of the project from the novels might be tested inreal life. Thegrammar book was advertised in literary and feminist magazines, and feedback led to a second edition and posthumously a third edition.
Before conceiving of Láadan, Elgin had published aself-help bookThe Gentle Art of Verbal Self Defense (1980) which was developed into a series of books focusing on the workplace, romantic relationships, and so on. It postulated that at least in English, phrasing often allowed for an ambiguous hostility which could be used as a sort ofverbal abuse especially in competitive environments, and discussed which defenses might be effective and which not; seeverbal self-defense § Influential contributors. To allow for the means to expressnuanced emotion and other distinctions,features combine to create and modify meanings.
Láadan is atonal language. It utilises two distinct tones[a]:
The word "Láadan" has three syllables: "lá-" with the short vowel /a/ plus high tone; "-a" with the short vowel /a/ and no tone; and "-dan".
Láadan does not allow any double (i.e.long) phonemes. Whenever two identical short vowels would occur side by side in a single morpheme, one of them has to be marked for high tone. When adding an affix would result in two identical vowels side by side, anepenthetic /h/ is inserted to prevent the forbidden sequence. The language will allow eithermáa ormaá, but not *maa. These combinations can be described as:
Láadan has fivevowels:
| Labial | Dental / Alveolar | Postalveolar /Palatal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| median | lateral | |||||
| Nasal | m/m/ | n/n/ | ||||
| Plosive | b/b/ | d/d/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | th/θ/ | lh/ɬ/ | sh/ʃ/ | h/h/ | |
| voiced | zh/ʒ/ | |||||
| Approximant | w/w/ | r/ɹ/ | l/l/ | y/j/ | ||
Láadan lacks theconsonants/p,t,k,ɡ,s,z,f,v/. It usesb,d,sh (/ʃ/),m,n,l,r,w,y (/j/),h with the same phonetic value as English. Threedigraphs require further explanation:
Most Láadan sentences, and all formal sentences in the language, contain threeparticles:
Láadan has two syntactic orderings. Inactive voice, it is averb–subject–object (VSO) language; the English example sentence in the following table would read inLáadan:Bíi erilyodShamdoyuth wa. Inpassive voice, it is anobject–verb–subject (OVS) language; the sentence would read inLáadan:Bíi erildoyuthyodShameshub wa. In either case, it uses a minority word order type among languages of the world.
Verbs andadjectives are interchangeable. There are noarticles, and the object is marked by the-th or-ethsuffix. Theplural number is shown only by theme- prefix to the verb. The particlera following a verb makes it negative. Separate clauses are joined by the particlehé.
OBJ:objectREQ:requestST
bíi statement ril áya be_beautiful mahina flower wa observed-truth bíi ril áya mahina wa statement PRS be_beautiful flowerobserved-truth The flower is beautiful |
báa eril mesháad with woman báa eril mesháad with Q PAST PL-go/come woman Did the women go/come? |
bíi statement aril meleyan ra lanemid dog wáa received-truth bíi aril meleyan ra lanemid wáa statement FUT PL-be_brown NEG dogreceived-truth I hear the dogs will not be brown |
Láadan has anagglutinativemorphology, and uses a number ofaffixes to indicate various feelings and moods that manynatural languages can only indicate by tone of voice,body language or circumlocution.
| Affix | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| (-)lh(-) | disgust or dislike | hahodimi: "pleasantly bewildered";hahodimilh: "unpleasantly bewildered" |
| du- | to try to | bíi eril dusháad le wa: "I tried to come" |
| dúu- | to try in vain to | bíi eril dúusháad le wa: "I tried in vain to come" |
| ná- | progressive aspect | bíi eril dúunásháad le wa: "I was trying in vain to come" |
| -(e)tha | natural possessor | lalal betha: "her mother's milk" |
| -(e)tho | customary or legal possessor | ebahid letho: "my husband" |
| -(e)thi | possessor by chance | losh nethi: "your money (gambling winnings)" |
| -(e)the | possessor by unknown provenance | ana worulethe: "the cats' food" |
| -(h)id | denotes male (otherwise female or gender neutral) | thul: "mother/parent";thulid: "father" |
Thespeech-act particle, at the beginning of a sentence, can also carry several suffixes, which expand on the overall state of the sentence. For example,bíi begins a statement, butbíide begins a statement that is part of a narrative;bóoth begins a request made in pain;báada begins a question that is meant in jest.
Pronouns in Láadan are built up from a number of constituent parts. The consonantl marks thefirst person,n the second person andb the third person. Usually, these are followed by the vowele. The vowela is used to designate someone who is loved (lhe- is prefixed to describe someone who is despised). The suffix-zh is used to mark a plural pronoun for numbers up to four, and-n for numbers beyond that. Therefore,lazh means "we, several beloved", andlheben means "they, many despised".
Anthony Burgess mentioned Láadan in a 1985 review ofA Feminist Dictionary inThe Observer, calling it "ingenious" and stating he was "highly sympathetic" of its aims, but asserting that "it's not going to work" because "[n]ot enough women care sufficiently".[6]
Definitions from Wiktionary
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Data from Wikidata
| Classification | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specific languages by group |
| ||||||||||
| Neography | |||||||||||
| Study | |||||||||||
| Comparisons | |||||||||||
